Stretching Dollars, and, Yes, Feasting, in Lower-Priced Rio

Brazil is going through a very rough patch. Its government is mired in a mammoth corruption scandal, its credit rating was just reduced to junk status by Standard & Poor’s, and its currency has tanked, losing 40 percent of its value against the dollar in the last year.

That’s terrible for the country and for the many friends I have there whose lives have been directly affected. It’s even terrible for me, given a web project I’m working on, aimed toward Brazilians visiting New York, which they’re not doing much these days. But this is not a finance or political column. I write about budget travel. So if the dollar can get me so much more, why am I not in Rio right now?

The Brazilian real has lost 53 percent of its value since that day, and tricks are no longer necessary. Of course, Brazil has had higher inflation than the United States since then, so things are not literally less than half the price they were. (And if you’re a luxury traveler who likes imported wine and shopping at Gucci, you’re out of luck, too — imports are still pricey.) But there is a notable difference: This time I took more taxis and even stayed in an actual hotel on the main drag of the Copacabana neighborhood, a couple of blocks from the beach. With my no-foreign-transaction-fee credit card (I currently use the Chase Sapphire card, but there are many other options), a dollar got me 3.81 Brazilian reais. A year earlier that would have been 2.29. Its 2011 low was 1.54. (This week it’s up to 3.86.)

So if you earn dollars, now is a great time to visit Brazil — whether it’s to soak up the sun and sunny disposition of Rio, to dive into the bustle of São Paulo, to hop from Miami to Manaus (under six hours direct) and take a boat down the Amazon. Or head to Brazil’s more hidden spots, which are harder to get to but worth it.

Ah, which reminds me, airfares, too, are down, even on the American carriers, at least in part because Brazilians are traveling far less to the United States. For October I recently found tickets from New York to Rio for $665, Washington to São Paulo for $695 and Miami to Manaus for $515, all with one short layover. (You can fly those routes direct for a bit more.)

The caveats: Brazil is still not a cheap country compared with, say, Indonesia, where I recently averaged $43 a day, living quite well. (To scrape by on that in Rio, you’d need to stay in hostels and avoid most attractions.) Airfares will go up from Christmas through Carnaval (Feb. 5 to 10 next year) (a.k.a. the southern summer) and again next August, at least to Rio, when the Olympics come to town. You still need a $160 tourist visa that requires a visit to the Brazilian consulate (though there’s a move to drop that for the Olympics). And, of course, Rio and other cities are far from crime-free — think New York in the ’80s — though with appropriate precautions you’ll in all likelihood be fine.

During my recent visit, the hotel I chose rather randomly — it had decent reviews and a price of $84 including taxes — was the Mar Palace. While its blandness is the opposite of boutique (and its toilets could use a stronger flush), it’s perfectly pleasant. And for people like me used to sleeping on sofas, tents, hostels and shabby guesthouses, it’s actually quite nice, especially the breakfast spread of rolls, cakes and tropical fruits (papaya, mango, the surprisingly astringent cashew apple), and fresh juices (like the pineapple juice made green with fresh mint). It’s typical of what is now the sub-$100 genre of just-off-the-beach hotels in Copacabana. (Hotels of similar quality in classier Ipanema are a bit pricier.)

Though dollar-adjusted prices of all attractions — the tram up to the famous Christ the Redeemer statue, a soccer match at Maracanã stadium — are down, I mostly took advantage of the restaurants; what in 2011 would have been a splurge is now reasonable, even a bargain, allowing me to escape my usual pattern of skipping from juice bars to cheap pay-by-the-kilo buffets.

Most foreigners first meet Brazilian food through churrascarias, the gluttonous but often high-quality meat palaces where a stream of servers bring endless rounds of skewered cuts of meat at a pace so fast and furious that this Brazilian comedy sketch, in which a man trying to declare his love for a female friend is constantly interrupted by waiters bearing skewers of meat, is fairly accurate. But in the United States, those places are pricey — $60 for dinner or $40 for lunch at Fogo de Chão in Manhattan, for example. The upscale places aren’t cheap in Brazil either (the Fogo de Chão branch in Rio’s Botafogo neighborhood is 119 reais for lunch or dinner.)

But my friend Ky Adderley, an educational consultant living in Rio, suggested we eat at Carretão, generally considered a respectable, second-tier spot with two locations. In Ipanema, where Ky usually goes, the buffet is 79 reais, but I dragged him over to the Copacabana branch where it’s 71.

Let’s do that math: At the most recent rate for a no-fee credit card, that means $18.39 gets you a wide array of sizzling cuts of meat, including four varieties of picanha, Brazil’s famous top sirloin cut, Argentine bife de chorizo, chicken legs, chicken hearts, lamb chops with mint, and more — plus various salads as well as rice, beans, fries, soups ... it goes on.

Wondering about inflation? Carretão’s staff could not remember what the price was exactly a year ago, but forensic evidence (i.e. old reviews on Trip Advisor) showed that in April 2014, it was 69 reais, so the price has gone up only 3 percent. With 10 percent service charge (tips and tax are not included) and bottled water or soft drinks, the real final price of a meal will be about $22, versus $37 in 2014. “A meal” is actually misleading: If you go for a late lunch, it counts as two meals, since you won’t want to look at food until the next day.

Let’s recall that Rio is still not a cheap city — it’s just much better than it used to be. I did still save money where I could, eating at those by-the-kilo places (which are, of course, cheaper than ever — 15 reais, under $6 — should get you a filling meal) and stuffing myself at breakfast to reduce snacking costs. I also took the subway whenever I could, of course.

But I did have one more mini-splurge that was worth it. A Brazilian journalist friend, Álvaro Pereira Jr., recommended the Japanese restaurant Azumi as the most authentic Japanese restaurant in Rio, noting that though it was no bargain, Americans would now find it reasonable. Álvaro is one of those “I like the Frugal Traveler but I’m not a frugal traveler” types, so I was a bit wary when a friend and I entered the tiny yet surprisingly labyrinthine restaurant (sit at the upstairs sushi bars, not in the somewhat depressing basement rooms).

Azumi is family-run, but also feels that way — actually two different things. The (bilingual) menu is a bit scary — many of the “entradas,” which means starters, are 70 reais — one real less than a whole meal at Carretão.

But we ordered deliberately and well, and had a wonderful meal. Thinly sliced giant squid sashimi was folded into elegant loops arrayed next to puréed ginger and a pile of chopped scallions, meant to be mixed into soy sauce, providing a textured, spicy contrast to the startlingly fresh squid. (Azumi has several direct relationships with fishermen, Álvaro said.) There was also lightly fried eggplant — thick silver-dollar sized pieces that exploded with juice, and skewers on which slender, barely charred asparagus and thinly sliced bacon alternated elegantly. By limiting ourselves to one approximately 20-ounce bottle of Original beer instead of sake, our bill came to 101 reais each, including service. That’s $27 — not strictly frugal, but definitely a bargain.

I was halfway back to the United States — at a layover in Manaus — when a photo of skewered picanha popped up on my cellphone. Ky had returned to Carretão, barely 48 hours after we had eaten there. “What?” I responded. “You’re back???”

“18 bucks!!!! How can I not?” he wrote.

Should you feel bad about throwing a little cash around in a country going through an economic crisis? I don’t think so. The country can only benefit from added tourist spending. Just don’t gloat about prices loudly and publicly around Brazilian friends, and by all means don’t post anything online where it might get back to … oops.

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of an educational consultant in Rio who dined with the writer. He is Ky Adderley, not Adderly.

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a Brazilian journalist. He is Álvaro Pereira, not Pereria.

Correction:

An earlier version of this article identified incorrectly the location of the restaurant Azumi. It is in Rio de Janeiro, not São Paulo.